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Friday, July 1, 2011

For optimum results, play this song and stand on your head. Because sometimes the world is completely upside-down.

Now, peteandjosh aren't wont to rant and bitch about career frustrations (hard to tell when we've made exactly three pseudo-public statements on the topic) but I was reminded by Pete yesterday of an old joke between us. It involved an extra section we planned on putting in the credits of our movies. After the standard "Special Thanks to," for the friends and supporters of a particular work, we added "No Thanks to" for those who's active discouragement actually caused us to question our creative ideas and abilities - a condition historically cured by a quick trip down Knob Creek. There's also a "Fuckyouverymuch" section reserved for a special breed of industry douchebag.

A movie producer (or his 22 year-old assistant) just read a screenplay of ours and upon passing on it said the following, "I really loved it, but it's too much like the film, 'Win Win'." Thus continuing the never-ending cycle of totally incomprehensible reactions to our work. This same producer read (and passed on) another script Pete and I submitted about six months ago with a similar response - loved the writing, but it's just not the right size.

As if these things come in widths…

Now, I've not seen, "Win Win," but most of what I read suggests that it's a solid movie, with amazing performances. So I'm left wondering, "What's wrong with it being like Win Win?" Of course, my first response is, if you really love it why not just leave it there and stop adding conjunctions that ultimately contradict your initial reaction?

What's a guy to do? Rant and bitch, I guess. Just maybe this hit me at exactly the wrong place and time, maybe Sidney Lumet's recent passing stirred up some unexpected Peter Finch in me, maybe it's that the industry shit list (I used to actually keep one) is becoming a mile-long scroll of resentment-bile that does more to feed the fire than extinguish it.

Look, it's not like we're gonna stop writing them and shooting them and making them. We'd just prefer not to die of old age before a broader opinion of our work rises to meet our own. Visual of peteandjosh flexing our screenplays in the mirror?

So to the distributor who considered our film, "Kaaterskill Falls" and said, "I really loved it, but I wouldn't know what to do with it," and the potential manager who reacted to a screenplay by saying, "Loved it, but what if the kids in it were actually aliens?" and the entire wall of festival rejection letters from years of submissions (do you really wish me luck in the future?) I dedicate this song from 4:10 right on to the end.

NOTE: I first heard this song browsing CDs at Brigade Records, a tiny trade-in store which rode the northern tip of what used to be known as Little Italy and is now doubtless a John Fleuvag. I was 25, and as a typically self-absorbed 25 year old, thought this album was written exclusively for and about me. It's nice to know that fifteen years later there are still a few lines that fit.